You've got to save a little money for a rainy day for emergencies. But as for me waiting until I'm 52.5 years old to get my retirement savings...I think I'm going to pass on that idea. I don't need to save myself money from my own self. I manage it pretty decently.

But I do want to tuck some away in the interim because I don't yet earn enough to live above the standard cost of living.

Paul, in the current situatiuon, 'cash under the matt6ess' may indeed be a viable way to maintain an emergency fund - provided you don't live in an area where the required level of security exceeds the money a retail bank would take from you fior holding the same sum. _________________back to the world of sailing
http://www.newfreebooters.com

If you don't think that savings are worthwhile, you can do other things.

- invest in internet real estate,

-- domains. Must admit I've had very little luck with this, but if you put even just a small site on them you can get your money back from AdSense and the like (had some luck with that).

-- profitable websites. Lots of people do this. I've very little experience of it but I believe it works.

- switch currencies around. I'm a complete amateur at this, but we've made a few bob by watching how the dollar moves against the pound. Buy when it's cheap and then switch back when it changes.

- just spend it. I'm spending quite a lot of money these days. I suppose you could call it 'investing' in new projects. The idea behind that is that the money I spend today will bring rewards tomorrow and I'll get more back out than I put in, in the first place.

Just as we've moved from the industrial age to the information age, perhaps we've also moved away from the traditional savings model.